1998 ? - 2000 Tacoma Headlight Replacement

I bought the Anzo Headlights to replace the stock housing on my 2000 Tacoma. Total cost was $165 and some change, two day shipped from Amazon.com.

Tools that I used -
Needle Nose Pliers
Medium size Philips screw driver
1/4in driver
10mm socket
4mm socket (Adjusting the headlights)
5" Extension

The new housings before install.



Time to start the installation.

1) Unplug the power from the back of both headlights and get the plugs out of the way.

2) Remove the grille.

The grille will be attached by little blacks pinch clips in 7 locations. If my memory serve's me correct, there are 4 on the top, and 3 on the bottom. These little clips can be pushed with a screwdriver or pinched with pliers and while being pinched, with a bit of pulling pressure, should pull right through, releasing the grille. I will try to get some image's tomorrow.

Once the grill is removed, your radiator and headlights will be exposed.

3) Removing the side markers.

The side markers are attached at two points. The first step is to remove the philips screw shown in the image below.



After removing the philips screw, the only thing thing holding the side marker light in, is a pressure pin. I made the mistake of trying to pull the headlight straight out with my hands. The result was tearing some skin off of my index finger. When removing the second side marker (the one in the picture) I used philips screw driver (using reference to the picture) I wedged the screw driver behind the side marker housing with my right hand, and pulling with my left hand straight out, popped the light straight towards me. This worked MUCH better. You can see the pressure pin in the image below.



Remember the side marker pulls straight out in front of the vehicle, NOT out to the side.

3) After the side marker is removed, you need to remove a face plate as seen in the image below.



The circle to the left is the philips screw that needs to be removed and the circle to the right shows where the plastic clips is that holds the face plate on as seen in the next image.



Here you can see the little black plastic clip as well as the back of the face plate after it has been removed. A you tube told me that I could simply "pry off the plastic plate". The result was a broken clip. I was able to successfully remove the face plate by sliding it down as far as I could towards the bumper so that I could pry the bottom piece with the plastic pin off, then slide it back upwards to pry off the top. This worked well and I did not break anything.

4) After the face plate is removed, there are four attachment points.

Two on the right near the side marker.



And one below the headlight and one on the left, near the radiator as seen in the image below. (I needed the 5" extension to remove the screw below the headlight as seen below)



After removing all 4 attachment points, the housing should pull right out, pulling to the front and center of the vehicle.

After the headlight is removed dont forget to remove the little black plastic clip as seen in part 3, but do not attach it to the new headlight housings as you will see why later.

5) Insert the new housings, but do not yet start putting the truck back together. Start by plugging the headlights into their appropriate sockets, and turning on your headlights to ensure the new lamps work!

6) Upon ensuring that the lights in fact do work, un-attach the plugs so that there is no power while putting everything back together.

7) Attach the 4 screws at the points circled in the picture's below.





8) The next step is to attach the face plate. Take the little black plastic piece, and attach it to the face plate as it would hold it if the face plate were on the vehicle. Once clipped to the face plate, snap the black plastic clip to the headlight by pushing the clip into the appropriate headlight spot as seen in the image below, then attach the other side with the screw.





9) After the face plate is back on, attach the side marker by pushing the pressure pin back into place.



and then screw the top screw back in.



10) Once all the screws are back into place, re-attach your grill at all 7 locations, plug your lights back in and wait for night so you can adjust them.







How's this for alignment / aiming?

Low's



High's

 

I'd like to do this with these lights but it says the corner light will fit the 4 wheel drive only. Does anybody know about this? I can't imagine there would be a difference but I don't know for sure. Thanks for the help.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/98-0...=Make:Toyota|Model:Tacoma&hash=item4cf5b0faac

 

those are the same ones that i just purchased, sorry i am a 4 wheel drive but i think as long as you're not a 5 lugger 2wd you should be fine, cosmetically i dont think there is a difference between prerunners and 4wd's maybe someone else can chime in and confirm that, but i really dont think you'll have any problems

 

I hope so! I just really can't think of a single reason why they wouldn't fit.

 

just installed these same lights, well they "look" the same, ebay...
so damn cold though, i broke one of the sidemarker pressure pin connectors. damnit

 

@Wateroksnmud

Looks like the last 8 images of the original post aren’t loading any more... would you be willing to reupload?